Saturday, June 11, 2011

Kyodo News Japanese reports that the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts has started the survey off the coast of Fukushima to study the extent of radiation contamination in the marine environment. No information in the Kyodo article as to since when the MBL has been doing the survey.

The MBL is the oldest independent marine laboratory in the US, and one of the most prominent; to date, 54 MBL-affiliated scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize, among many other honors received by the laboratory’s researchers, according to Wikipedia.

The MBL, according to Arnie Gundersen during the interview with Chris Martenson the other day, has said that "the ocean has ten times more radiation from Fukushima than the Black Sea did from Chernobyl."

True to form, the Japanese government didn't bother to announce (it still doesn't) that it has approved the request for the survey, because, according to Kyodo News, "It's done by a US institution not by a Japanese one."

It was discovered on June 11 that a team of experts from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in the US has started the survey off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. The team will collect sea water samples and marine lives, and evaluate the effect on the marine ecosystem from the radioactive materials released from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The Japanese government approved the request for the survey, but it continues to withhold the details because it is a survey by an American institution.

According to the surveys by the Ministry of Education and Science and other agencies and institutions, radioactive materials have been found in sea water and the ocean soil in wide areas. They've been found in fish and shellfish. However, the Japanese government hasn't started consolidating the survey data and evaluate the effect of radiation on the total marine ecosystem, letting the US lead the way.

Well, the Japanese government hasn't started it, because it doesn't want to. At least not right now. In fact, the government agency in charge of fisheries doesn't believe in "bioconcentration" or "bioaccumulation", and I don't expect them to do anything to disturb their belief system.

I hope the MBL will release the survey results for the benefit of the rest of us.

Even the Japanese MSM had to report the events somewhat, which means the number of participants throughout Japan was probably significant even for the MSM.

That doesn't stop them from downplaying the number, though. Just like the US MSM.

The best (for MSM) coverage goes to Asahi Shinbun, who treated the news of the nationwide events as one of the top news. The article at Asahi has pictures and videos of the protests in various parts of the country, and pins the number of participants as follows:

20,000 in one demonstration in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, quoting the number by the event organizer;

200 in Koriyama-City, Fukushima Prefecture.

No other information on any other events. There were at least 14 events in Tokyo that were carried live on the net. Including the events that weren't net-casted, there were over 20 events in Tokyo alone. Throughout Japan, the 6.11 No-Nukes site lists 174 events worldwide.

Moving on, Sankei Shinbun only reports on the event in Yoyogi Park in Tokyo:

1,500 people

Yomiuri Shinbun is even more hilarious, and the only number the paper is willing to put out is:

200 people in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture

Kyodo News says several thousands in Paris, but no number for any event in Japan.

Mainichi Shinbun doesn't even carry the news.

Unofficial numbers for some events in Tokyo and Kanagawa, from the tweets:

20,000 in Shinjuku, Tokyo

6,000 in Shiba Park, Tokyo

1,500 in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo

700 in Kunitachi City, Tokyo

4,000 Yokohama, Kanagawa

Not too bad for a rainy day and for a country not used to go against any official, government policy.

BBC and the US's NPR reported the Tokyo number as 5,000.

New York Times has an article on the event in Tokyo (probably Shinjuku, as the article say 20,000 people attended), which concludes with a cynical remark by a bystander, a 21-year-old girl, saying "It looks fun, but if you think anything will change, it’s naïve."

You watch, girl.

Usual detractors are there in numbers, too; there are tweets attacking those who attended the demonstrations, calling them "naive idiots" for ignoring the need for electricity generated by the nuke plants. Hey just like the girl in the NYT article...

Compared to the Reactor 1 gamma camera photos, the numbers for the Reactor 3 are markedly higher. Measurement unit is not noted in the photos, but if it is the same as those for the Reactor 1, it is counts per second (cps).

The location 2 is right below the Spent Fuel Pool, I've been informed.

The spent fuel pool occupies part of the 4th floor and the 5th floor. These pictures were taken (I'm sure they took more) by the workers on June 10.

In the first photo, you can see the pipe that's bent. That was the pipe that TEPCO was counting on to connect the cooling system for the Spent Fuel Pool, according to Jiji News (6/11/2011). The cooling system for the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool won't be operational at least until July, as TEPCO will have to either fix the pipe or come up with alternative connection.

The second photo shows a mess of broken pipes, concrete bits and equipments. Any mechanics, engineers, who want to dissect the photo?

The Reactor 4 was in a scheduled maintenance when the earthquake hit on March 11. All the fuel rods had been moved to the Spent Fuel Pool. The workers were in the process of replacing the stainless-steel shroud of the Reactor Pressure Vessel at the time of the earthquake.

Date City in Fukushima Prefecture announced on June 9 that they will distribute portable dosimeters to all children in the city's elementary schools and middle schools, kindergartens and nursery schools to calm the fear of the parents of children in school age. There are about 8,000 such children. The program will start in early July. In Fukushima Prefecture, Kawamata-machi will also distribute dosimeters to all of their elementary/middle school children and kindergartners (1,500 children). Part of Kawamata-machi is designated as "planned evacuation zone".

Date City is adjacent to Iitate-mura, which is designated as "planned evacuation zone". Date City has so-called "hot spots" that show elevated level of radiation, and parents have been asking the city to come up with a system to monitor the radiation exposure for their children.

市によると、配布対象は小中学生約６千人と園児約２千人。医療関係者が使っているバッジ型の小型線量計を衣服などにつけてもらう。

According to the city, dosimeters will be distributed to 6,000 pupils in elementary schools and middle schools, and 2,000 children in kindergartens and nursery schools in the city. They will wear the small dosimeters worn by medical practitioners.

The program details will be decided in discussion with the expert that the city hires as radiation advisor. The cost, including the cost to purchase dosimeters, will be about 30 million yen (US$373,000). The city will pay for the cost, but plans to bill TEPCO later.

Six-Eleven No-Nuke demonstrations are planned throughout Japan on June 11 their time. It looks to be a totally grassroots movement that's been going on for about a month, which is evidenced by the fact that no Japanese MSM has ever reported it.

It's raining in the mid section of Japan, but the organizers throughout Japan are hoping to bring out 1 million people total at various events throughout the day. Over 100 events are planned.

Almost all events seem to have been coordinated via the net and Twitter. Independent journalists are covering them, and there are several networks of citizens throughout Japan trying to netcast the event live, using sophisticated devices like cellphones and using sites like USTREAM.

Maybe the Japanese are reaching a critical point where the "no nuke" voice makes up the number significant enough to start to make an impact on the majority of Japanese.

Some of the events are about to start. You can view them at this site (in Japanese). Click on the map of Japan, and the events planned for the region pop up.

As if on cue, the Japanese government and Japan's big industries are at it again, trying to scare citizens that power blackout would be the only choice if there were no nuclear power plants and if they want to keep the manufacturing industries in Japan. Never mind that there is actually no power shortage.

But as you will see at these events, more and more Japanese don't seem to care if there's a blackout. They just don't want nuclear power plants any more in their backyards. They are practically everyone's backyards, with 54 reactors throughout Japan. Fukushima I Nuke Plant has shown that the "backyard" extends from Miyagi Prefecture all the way to Shizuoka Prefecture.

9 workers (5 TEPCO employees, 4 from TEPCO affiliate companies) entered the reactor building to do measurements and inspections in order to prepare for the nitrogen injection into the Containment Vessel. They spent about 30 minutes, surveying about half the floor, getting exposed to 5.88 to 7.98 millisieverts of radiation for their work.

96 millisieverts/hour radiation at the staircase going down to the basement, at the southwest corner (circled in red).

Blowup of the photo at the location (3), where 100 millisieverts/hour radiation was measured:

Workers braved the high radiation (up to 100 millisievert/hour) in the Reactor 3 reactor building on June 9 and found water in the basement. TEPCO says it expected to find water there, but didn't bother to tell us until the water was actually found.

Have I seen this before? Yes, the Reactor 1.

To state the obvious, if there's water in the basement of the reactor building, that means 1) the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) is broken; 2) the Containment Vessel is broken.

TEPCO announced on June 10 that they confirmed the presence of water in the basement of the Reactor 3 reactor building at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. TEPCO had estimated that 6,400 tons of water would be in the basement as of the end of May, based on the amount of water injected into the RPV. Now its existence has been confirmed.

According to TEPCO, workers entered the reactor building and descended the stairs from the 1st floor to the basement, and saw the water. Depth of the water was 5.8 meters [19 feet] from the basement floor, and the amount of water looked to be slightly more than TEPCO's estimate. The radiation level near the surface of the water was 51 millisieverts/hour.

１号機同様、炉心溶融によって原子炉圧力容器が破損し、水が外に漏れ出している可能性があるという。近く、水を採取して放射性物質を調べる。

According to TEPCO, it is possible that the RPV has been damaged by the core meltdown, leaking the water. TEPCO plans to test the water for radioactive materials.

Survey of the 1st floor found distorted doors of the instrument panel and a ladder dropped from the floor above. Part of the equipment was blackened with what looked like soot. TEPCO thinks they were caused by the hydrogen explosion.

TEPCO announced on June 10 that leaks were found at the facility to treat contaminated water at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. TEPCO was doing the test run using regular water for the start of full-scale treatment on June 15, but the discovery of the leaks could delay the start.

The water processing facility was scheduled to start on June 15 to reduce the highly contaminated water in the reactor buildings and turbine buildings. If the start is delayed, TEPCO may run out of space to store the water.

Junichi Matsumoto of TEPCo said, "We don't know for sure that the system will be operational on June 15. It is possible that the date will be delayed because of the repair. As we haven't been thoroughly informed of the situation at Fukushima I [regarding the leaks], we don't know the extent of the necessary repair."

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Yomiuri Shinbun (12:35 PM JST 6/10/2011) reports that one worker at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was found unconscious early in the morning in the dormitory, and was airlifted to a hospital in Iwaki City.

At least they now have a helicopter that carries workers, not just politicians and TEPCO executives.

According to Asahi Shinbun, the worker in his 40s from a TEPCO affiliate company was spraying the special resin to hold down the radioactive materials on the debris and on the ground the previous day.

Another Yomiuri news says 3 workers who entered the Reactor 3 reactor building exceeded the allotted radiation limit (5 millisievert) for their work on June 9. The radiation suffered by the workers was between 5.88 and 7.96 millisieverts. No information on how long they worked inside the building. No effect on health, of course.

De facto loosening of standards in radioactive safety is coming fast and furious over in Japan. Shock and awe, sort of.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) is going to allow radioactive sewage sludge to be recycled as cement materials. Starting with the sludge with several hundred becquerels per kilogram of cesium, and gradually expand to the sludge with higher radiation as long as it is "confirmed "safe".

You see, the cement industry is suffering. We've got to help them. The local governments are being flooded with radioactive sewage sludge, We've got to help them. Spread the radiation far and wide, and it will be "safe".

It must be a shock to many Japanese to finally realize that the government ministries are for the benefit of the industries and the ministries themselves, not the citizens and residents of Japan. This is just another proof that the safety and security of the industries ( in the MLIT's case, big ones like construction, railroad, aerospace) is the primary concern of the government, at the expense of "small people".

And I would add that it does make a difference who's at the top. The fish rots from the head. Too bad the rotten head (PM Kan) wasn't taken out, thanks to the silly maneuver by the "space alien" ex-PM Hatoyama.

Concerning the radioactive sewage sludge at sewage treatment centers in Fukushima and other prefectures, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has entered the final negotiation with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Japan Cement Association to re-start the recycling of the sewage sludge. Recycling will start with the sewage sludge with relatively low level of radiation and use it as cement material. Several cement companies will start taking the sewage sludge as early as next week. If the safety of the cement products is ascertained, the Ministry will gradually expand the use of the sewage sludge [with higher radioactive materials].

Regarding the radioactive sewage sludge, the national government issued a guideline in mid May that part of the sludge could be used in cement. However, as there is no system to check the safety, the cement industry has halted taking the sludge. Normally, about 40 percent of the sewage sludge is recycled. Municipalities are having a hard time securing the storage space [after the sludge has been found to be radioactive].

The safety of the sewage sludge is to be ascertained by the local municipalities who will regularly monitor the radiation. As to the safety of the cement product, cement companies will conduct the test so that the radiation level falls within the limit set by the law that governs nuclear reactors, nuclear fuels and materials. Municipalities will conduct the test several times a week, and if the radiation level is about several hundred becquerels per kilogram, the cement companies will take the sludge.

Radioactive Japan. That's what's going to be as long as these government and industry elites run the place.

It can't get any better. (But that's what I've thought ever since March 11 and I've been wrong.)

It was the proverbial "fly in the ointment" when an online food grocer (home delivery of fresh produce) alerted the Shizuoka prefectural government that one of Shizuoka's teas tested high in radioactive cesium according to the grocer's test. For Shizuoka, it was going to be a "clean bill of health" for all teas in Shizuoka when they started testing the final products, "seicha". 8 tea-growing regions tested below the limit on June 8, and 11 more regions were going to do the same on June 9.

But this grocer came forward with the information that one of the teas were radioactive, exceeding the national limit. So the government was forced to test that particular tea, and it was indeed exceeding the limit.

But it was not before the prefecture told the grocer not to publish the data, because the prefectural government was already doing the minimum necessary to alert the consumer. Their words.

In other countries, this kind of arrogant behavior by the producer ignoring the safety of the consumers may result in boycott of the product.

It has been revealed that the Shizuoka prefectural government requested the online food grocer in Tokyo that the grocer not publish on the grocer's home page the result of the test for radioactive materials in Shizuoka tea that exceeded the national provisional limit.

The grocer is "Radish Boya" (Minato-ku, Tokyo) that does home delivery service of organic vegetables to its members. The grocer informed the Shizuoka prefectural government on June 6 that the Shizuoka tea they tested exceeded the provisional limit for radioactive materials in teas. Upon being alerted, the Shizuoka government demanded the grocer withhold the information and not publish it on the grocer's website. Accordingly, the grocer sent out letters to the members who bought the tea explaining the reason for the recall.

県経済産業部は「消費者への連絡など最低限のことはやっている。ＨＰで出すとかえって不安を広げかねない」と説明している。

The Economy and Industry Division of the Shizuoka prefectural government explains, "We're doing the minimum that's necessary to alert the consumers. If the information is published on a website, it may spread unnecessary fear."

The grocer "Radish Boya" is well-known for the high-priced but high-quality and safe organic vegetables and foods, according to my contact in Tokyo.

There are many events throughout Japan to promote goods, including fresh produce, from the area first affected by the March 11 earthquake/tsunami and then by "baseless rumors" (aka radioactive materials) that the vegetables and food items from the area are contaminated with radioactive materials.

Some events are organized by the government ministries and agencies, others by the prefectural or local governments. There are many by private businesses, and here's one of them, as happily reported by a newspaper in Fukushima.

The "Shipping Ceremony" of the packages of vegetables for the employees of Sogo Keibi Hosho (ALSOK) Group [a security company headquartered in Tokyo] took place on June 8 in Shirakawa City in Fukushima Prefecture, at the Japan Agriculturral Cooperative (JA) in Shirakawa.

ALSOK Group called on its 35,000 employees nationwide to purchase vegetables grown in Fukushima, in order to help farmers in Fukushima who suffer "baseless rumors (風評)" [that their vegetables are contaminated with radioactive materials]. Nearly 500 orders came, and as the first shipment, JA Shirakawa packed vegetables grown in Shirakawa. As more orders come in, other JAs within Fukushima Prefecture will take turns shipping the orders. The ceremony was attended by the president of the Fukushima branch of ALSOK Group, the head of the Shirakawa JA, and others.

To "learn" from the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, as the IAEA is to recommend, no doubt, the EU is going to conduct the "stress test" for the 143 reactors in Europe to see how Europe's nuclear facilities are able to withstand natural or man-made disasters.

Caveat?

The test is voluntary, and as one German MEP (member of European Parliament) contends, the check is "largely in the hands of operators".

Sound familiar?

It's just like the so-called "stress test" devised by the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to assure the world that the US banking system was safe and sound, in the wake of September-November 2008's financial disaster that crashed the financial markets and triggered the worldwide recession. The "test" was not "voluntary" but the Treasury and the Fed handpicked which banks to do the "test". The banks knew exactly what they would be tested for, because for the most part they were the ones who told the regulators what parameters to test.

That should be very familiar to the Japanese, too. In Japan, at least in the past, when the fire department or the public health department conducted safety checks on the public facilities (hotels, restaurants, etc.) they used to "warn" those facilities days in advance about the inspection date and what to inspect.

MEPs have clashed over plans for "stress tests", which are due to be carried out on nuclear facilities in the EU.

There were angry scenes during the Commission statement on 9 June 2011, which caused Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger to appeal for calm.

Mr Oettinger was outlining plans for the tests - ordered in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster - which are designed to see how Europe's nuclear facilities are able to withstand natural or man-made disasters.

The so-called stress tests will be performed on Europe's 143 working reactors and other atomic installations and will consider a range of factors, including seismic activity, flooding, and power loss at reactors.

But German Green MEP Rebecca Harms dismissed the plans as a "paper check" designed to "downplay the risks of nuclear power".

Ms Harms attacked the voluntary nature of the tests, saying it left the checks "largely in the hands of operators".

Her comments were dismissed by fellow German MEP Herbert Reul, who described Ms Harms' opinion as "naïve".

Mr Reul praised the commissioner, saying that although the plans were "not 100% what we wanted", they would not be improved by other MEPs "complaining and harking on about it".

British conservative Giles Chichester protested about the "internal German discussion", and asked MEPs to focus on "the European issue".

Germany has recently announced that all of its nuclear power plants will be phased out by 2022, becoming the biggest industrial power to give up nuclear energy.

However Germany's nuclear industry has argued that an early shutdown would be hugely damaging to the country's industrial base.

Meanwhile countries including the UK, France and Poland have all announced further development of nuclear energy.

I wonder if there's an equivalent of "Saturday Night Live" in Europe. I hope they will make a wonderful spoof of this nuke plant "stress test", much like the SNL spoof on Geithner's "stress test" for banks. In case you missed that SNL skit from 2009, here it is.

In the morning of June 9 (JST) a local newspaper in Shizuoka Prefecture (Shizuoka Shinbun) vocally questioned the national government policy on the allowed radiation level for teas in various stages of tea processing. By the nightfall the paper had to report that radioactive cesium exceeding that level was detected in the final tea ("seicha") in one of the 11 tea-growing regions whose test results were announced on June 9.

The results for the other 8 tea-growing regions had been announced on June 8, and the growers and tea merchants in Shizuoka were much relieved to see that the numbers for radioactive cesium were below the provisional limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram and declared the Shizuoka tea to be "safe". (They were actually surprisingly high numbers; they were all in 3 digits, the highest being 385 becquerels/kg.)

(When they declare "safe", flee.)

When the paper questioned the validity of the 500 becquerels/kg standard, it cited, of all things, the minutes of the Nuclear Safety Commission's meeting, in which several commissioners expressed their opinion that the standard should be "flexible" (as I posted on June 2). Shizuoka Shinbun took it to mean that the opinion of the nuclear experts at the Nuclear Safety Commission was not reflected in the policy, which is too severe to the tea-growers and tea-merchants in the prefecture.

The Nuclear Safety Commission, as quoted by Shizuoka Shinbun, is of the opinion that the provisional safety limit should not be used as the guideline to restrict sales of the tea.

In light of the minutes of the Nuclear Safety Commission's meeting in which the testing of radioactive materials in teas was discussed, the policy decision by the national government was hardly based on the expert opinion. The reality is that "the national government is unable to listen to the local people as it is busy dealing with the crisis, and the discussion about radioactive materials and food safety is not conclusive," according to the Shizuoka prefectrual government sources.

The research on radioactivity in teas is lacking in the national government, unlike the regulations on agricultural chemicals and additives. The testing [of teas] this time was done at the express request from the Ministry of Health and Labor who is in charge of testing food items, against the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who insists the testing of raw tea leaves is enough to ensure safety as "aracha" (bulk tea before the blend) is normally not eaten.

Occasionally, people eat raw tea leaves of "shincha" (new tea) in tempura. However, the government's assessment that "the possibility is not zero that "aracha" will be eaten by the consumers" doesn't specifically say how much ingestion will cause a health hazard.

The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident was "beyond assumption", and it can't be helped if the the food safety policies lean toward greater regulation to ensure the health of the citizens. However, if a policy decision without any scientific basis is pushed through, it will only increase the social anxiety and fear. If "seicha" (final product) is tested for more than 500 becquerels/kilogram [cesium], it will be very difficult for the prefecture, local municipalities and the tea industry in Shizuoka to recover from the damage. (By Tadao Nakajima, Political Desk)

The Shizuoka prefectural government announced on June 9 that it had conducted the test for radioactive cesium in "seicha" (final product) of "ichiban-cha" (first-pick new tea) produced in 13 locations in 11 tea growing regions in Shizuoka, and found 679 becquerels/kg of cesium in "Hon-yama cha" in the Warashina district of Shizuoka City. The national provisional limit is 500 becquerels/kg.

県産の茶葉から基準値を超す放射性物質が検出されたのは初めて。残り１２カ所は基準値を下回った。

It was the first time that radioactive materials were detected in the tea leaves in Shizuoka in the amount exceeding the provisional limit. At the remaining 12 locations, the numbers did not exceed the limit.

The Shizuoka government says "It is not the level that will affect health." The government will request 100 tea processing plants in the district not to ship the tea on a voluntary basis, and also request the wholesalers not to distribute.

As Nikkei Shinbun reports, this "Hon-yama cha" exceeding the provisional limit was only discovered because a food grocer located outside Shizuoka Prefecture tested the tea on its own and alerted the Shizuoka government.

"Tobu" or Eastern, Sludge Plant in Koto-ku in Tokyo has an even higher level of radioactive cesium, and the plant may have been spewing radioactive cesium from the incinerator where the radioactive sewage sludge is burned, and has been contaminating the air and the soil in the areas around the plant and downwind (upstream) areas along the Arakawa River.

So it's a secondary radiation contamination.

The eastern part of Tokyo has been registering higher air radiation levels than the western part of Tokyo. Unchecked cesium dispersion from the sludge plant ever since the start of the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident may be good part of the reason.

And we wouldn't have known if it were not for the very concerned parents in Koto-ku who decided to organize themselves and ask a researcher from Kobe University to help them measure the radiation.

"Koto Association to Protect Children (江東こども守る会)" held a press conference in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building on June 7, and announced the result of its own survey showing the high level of radioactive cesium detected from the athletic ground near the sewage sludge processing plant "Tobu (eastern) Sluge Plant".

The survey was done by the Association and Professor Tomoya Yamauchi of Kobe University (radiation measurement). Cesium detected was 230,000 becquerels per square meter, 6 times as high as the limit set for the radiation control zone to restrict one from taking an item out of the control zone. Also, in the area around the plant and along the Arakawa river and the old Nakagawa river, there were many locations that registered high air radiation levels exceeding 0.2 microsievert/hour. [The "official" number measured in Shinjuku-ku is about 0.06 microsievert/hour.] Professor Yamauchi says, "Considering the locations with high air radiation levels and the wind direction, it is highly likely that the radioactive materials in the sewage collected at the plant are being released into the atmosphere through the treatment process." The Association submitted the petition to the Tokyo Metropolitan government demanding the halt of sludge processing at the plant and thorough investigation.

If they are demanding the halt, that means it is still in operation. The plant is located near the river mouth of the Arakawa River in eastern Tokyo as it flows into the Tokyo Bay. Prevailing wind is from the south, going upstream from the plant.

Tokyo Disney Land is about 5 kilometers southeast of the plant, by the way.

The Association uploaded the test result of the samples from 2 locations - athletic ground right next to the sludge plant, and a park 5 kilometers north of the plant; the test was done by a French laboratory (Association pour le Contrôle de la Radioactivité dans l’Ouest). It shows the soil in the park upstream (and downwind) from the plant having higher concentration of radioactive tellurium, iodine, and cesium than the soil taken from the athletic ground right next to the plant.

Update, or rather, review: The numbers are much higher than what was found in the area inside the 10-kilometer radius (actually 2 kilometers from the plant, 68 becquerels/kilogram). The number for strontium-90 in Akogi in Namie-machi (250 becquerels/kilogram) is approaching the number found at Fukushima I Nuke Plant (570 becquerels/kilo).

-----------------------------------------------Does it take that long to analyze the soil samples for strontium? (I know, I know...)

Asahi Shinbun reports that radioactive strontium was detected in soil as far away as 62 kilometers from the plant. The samples were taken between April 10 and May 19.

What's hilarious in the article is the so-called expert's comment, basically saying "Where there's cesium there's strontium. So of course we see strontium in the soil. But don't worry, if you don't eat much cesium, observing the government's provisional limit which may or may not stays the same, you're OK."

Well, he had been awfully quiet about that bit of information until asked by the Asahi reporter who wrote the piece. Disingenuous of Asahi Shinbun also; it is the first time that I remember, that any newspaper has said "where there's cesium, strontium is supposed to be there also." Asahi had a chance to say so from the day one, but didn't bother.

Non-government, non-experts like the rest of the Japanese already suspected it from long ago, particularly when they knew that strontium, plutonium, uranium, even americium, of Fukushima origin had been detected in the US.

The Ministry of Education and Science disclosed on June 8 that radioactive strontium had been detected at 11 locations in Fukushima Prefecture, including Fukushima City which is 62 kilometers away from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. A small amount of strontium is supposed to be found where radioactive cesium is also found, and now it's been proven so. Some strontium radioisotopes have long half-life, and they could affect the body for long time if ingested.

Radioactive strontium was found from soil samples taken from April 10 to May 19. In Fukushima City, strontium-90 with half-life of 29 years was found in 77 becquerels per kilogram, and strontium-89 with half-life of 50 days was found in 54 becquerels per kilogram.

The highest numbers come from the Akogi district in Namie-machi, with 250 becquerels/kg strontium-90 and 1,500 becquerels/kg strontium-89. In Iitate-mura, 36 kilometers northwest of the plant, 120 becquerels/kg strontium-90 and 1,100 becquerels/kg strontium-89 were detected; these amounts were even higher than those that had been detected earlier within 20 kilometer radius from the plant. Radioactive strontium was also detected from the soil samples from Tamura City, Hirono-machi, Kawauchi-mura, Minami-Soma City, Nihonmatsu City. The Ministry of Education and Science will further analyze the soil samples.

Radioactive strontium melts at a higher temperature than cesium to be volatilized. The fact that strontium has been detected would mean that the reactor core started to melt from the early stage of the accident, and then radioactive materials were released.

Once ingested, strontium tends to accumulate in bones. The Japanese government's Nuclear Safety Commission's spokesman Shigeharu Kato says, "Strontium exists at a certain ratio to cesium. Therefore, as long as the safety limit for cesium in food is observed, there is no ill effect from strontium. But caution is necessary not to ingest it from the soil."

NISA couldn't stop physics from working its way at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, so they did their best to hide it. And the reporters, usually not very much trained in physics not to mention any science at all, didn't know what to ask at the press conferences in the early days of the accidents and/or didn't understand the answer given by TEPCO or NISA.

Those few who did ask and did understand, and wrote about their speculation about the condition of the plant were branded as "fear-mongering liars" both by the government, the MSM who received tons of advertising money from the electric power companies who run nuke plants all over Japan, and also by a surprising number of ordinary Japanese, usually well-educated and therefore very trusting of the "official" explanations.

Anyway, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency now says a huge amount of hydrogen was generated only a few hours after the fuel rods started to get exposed in the Reactors 1, 2 and 3.

Maybe they've finally read the entries in English Wikipedia about "corium".

And always remember this PM assistant who said "We knew it was meltdown from the beginning, we didn't feel like announcing it", and the MSM who let him get away with it.

(That assistant, Goshi Hosono, is visiting the US (the link is in Japanese) to "exchange" information with high-ranking US officials. He will then go to the UK and France, steadfast supporters and promoters of nuclear energy along with the US and Japan.)

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) analyzed the data that suggests the maximum 1 ton of hydrogen gas was rapidly generated within few hours that the fuel rods in the Reactors 1, 2 and 3 started to get damaged at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

大部分が数時間のうちに発生しており、原子炉建屋の水素爆発につながったとみられる。

The majority of the hydrogen gas was generated within the first few hours, which probably led to the hydrogen explosions in the reactor buildings.

According to the NISA's analysis, the water level in the Reactor Pressure Vessel at Reactor 1 started to decline at about 5:00PM on March 11, 2 hours after the earthquake. The fuel rods started to get exposed, and one hour later zirconium in the cladding started to interact with water, generating hydrogen gas. Within few hours, most of 1 ton of hydrogen gas was generated.

Hydrogen gas started to get generated at about 8:00PM on March 14 in Reactor 2, and at about 10:00AM on March 13 in Reactor 3. In both cases, it took place within 2 hours after the fuel rods started to get exposed. The amount of hydrogen gas in Reactor 2 was 0.8 ton, and 1 ton in Reactor 3.

TEPCO doesn't know yet what caused the power outage in the Reactors 1 and 2. The power stopped for these reactors from 2:20PM to 5:30PM on June 8.

TEPCO plans to open the double door to the Reactor 2 reactor building after they install the air filtering system and run it for several days to "reduce" the amount of radiation inside the reactor building. The same exercise that they did for the Reactor 1 reactor building.

The air filtering system is scheduled to start operating on June 11, which happens to be the day when big "anti-nuke plant" rallies are planned throughout Japan.

In the meantime, the president of TEPCO, Masataka Shimizu, verbally scolded (without any penalty) the head of Fukushima I Nuke Plant, Masao Yoshida, for not stopping the seawater injection on March 11 as agreed at TEPCO and not reporting it to the TEPCO headquarters.

According to TEPCO, power went out in the afternoon on June 8 in the Reactors 1 and 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The lights are out in the central control rooms. The nitrogen injection system in the Reactor 1 and some of the monitoring posts have stopped. TEPCO is investigating the cause.

A tweet from NHK's Science and Culture division says this about the nitrogen injection system:

停止というより、圧力が上昇したため窒素供給を待機中です

Rather, they halted the nitrogen injection because the pressure [inside the Containment Vessel] went up.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

2.7 microsieverts per hour air radiation level is the highest ever detected in Tokyo so far, and almost the same air radiation level as Iitate-mura in Fukushima Prefecture, which is designated as "planned evacuation zone".

So, what is the excuse by the Tokyo Metropolitan government for withholding this information? "It was detected inside the building. The radiation was no problem at the perimeter of the facility."

The radiation level is almost the same as in Iitate-mura in Fukushima Prefecture which is designated as "planned evacuation zone". According to the Ministry of Education and Science, it is the highest air radiation level ever detected in Tokyo. The radiation is considered to have come from the radioactive sewage sludge, but the Tokyo Metropolitan government didn't disclose the survey result, because "it was detected inside the facility. There was no problem on the facility's perimeter, and it would have caused confusion if we had disclosed the result."

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan government, the facility is "Nanbu [Southern] Sludge Plant", which collects sewage sludge from two sewage treatment centers in Tokyo and burn it, and bury the ashes in the landfill on the Tokyo Bay. In the government survey in May, 10,540 becquerels/kilogram of radioactive cesium was detected from the slag from this plant.

As this blog posted back in May, "Tobu [Eastern] Sludge Plant" in Koto-ku had 170,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium in the slag, which had already been sold as cement material. I hate to think how high their air radiation level was inside the plant.

TEPCO disclosed on June 8 that it has entered into negotiations with the government agencies and local municipalities to treat the contaminated water in the basements of the buildings at Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant and release it into the ocean.

The water is from the tsunami [on March 11], and it contains radioactive cobalt-60 which probably came from the rusty pipes, and cesium-137 and cesium-134 which are considered to have flown from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant 10 kilometers north. The level of contamination is 10 to 30 times the limit allowed for the discharge into the ocean.

Mainichi Shinbun Japanese reports the level of radioactive materials is "normal" for a nuclear plant during the normal operation.

Hmmm. So, in a normal operation, radioactive cesium will fly from a nearby nuke plant and somehow land on the basement of the enclosed reactor building. Right.

The municipal government of Genkai-cho in Saga Prefecture (red in the map) in Kyushu and Kyushu Electric Power Company are ready to re-start the Reactors 3 and 4 at Genkai Nuclear Power Plant.

The Reactor 3 at Genkai Nuclear Power Plant uses MOX fuel in addition to uranium fuel, in what the Japanese call "pluthermal" (plutonium + thermal) nuclear power generation. In fact, it is the first MOX fuel reactor in Japan. (The Fukushima I's Reactor 3 is the third one.)

Japan's MOX fuel comes from France, by the way.

In December 2010, 1 year after they started using MOX fuel in the reactor for commercial power generation, an elevated level of radioactive iodine was detected in the RPV cooling water (4 times the limit). They discovered that there were minute pinholes in one fuel rod (uranium) through which radioactive iodine was leaking (Yomiuri Shinbun Kyushu edition, 12/11/2010, Kyushu Electric press release 2/8/2011, in Japanese). Upon the discovery, the plant shut down the Reactor 3 and started a "regular maintenance" earlier than scheduled.

8 out of 12 town assemblymen in Genkai-cho are in favor of re-starting the reactors, quite satisfied with the beefed-up safety measures at the plant. Problem? What problem? Iodine leaking? What is iodine?

The plant is located in northern Kyushu, in Saga Prefecture. Talk about downwind. Almost entire Japan will be downwind from the plant.

Hideo Kishimoto, mayor of Genkai-cho in Saga Prefecture, said on June 7 he would agree to Kyushu Electric Power Company's re-starting the Reactors 2 and 3 at its Genkai Nuclear Power Plant by early July, after showing Kyushu Electric the conditions for the re-start including increased safety measures at the plant. It will be the first time any local government agrees to the re-start of a nuclear power plant in its jurisdiction.

There is no law that requires the consent of local municipalities and assemblies to restart reactors after a regular maintenance. However, Kyushu Electric has said the "local consensus" of the prefecture and the town should be in place before the restart. Saga governor Yasushi Furukawa, who has shown

Mayor Kishimoto plans to call the executives at Kyushu Electric to his office around July 1, hand them the memorandum that specifies the conditions for the restart which include 1) stronger measures against terrorism and heavy rains; 2) reduction of human errors as much as possible; 3) PR to the local residents for greater understanding, and will verbally give his consent to the re-start.

The Genkai-cho Assembly already gave its approval in a special committee meeting on June 1, with 8 assemblymen out of 12 giving their consent to the re-start. Mayor Kishimoto says, "The national government ought to give the decision, but the town Assembly has approved, and we are able to confirm that the emergency safety measures after the March 11 earthquake have been effectively carried out. In order to protect the way of life in Kyushu, the re-start of the reactors at Genkai is necessary."

一方、県は９日、経済産業省原子力安全・保安院を呼び、地震対策などについて説明を受ける予定で、引き続き協議する構え

Meanwhile, the Saga prefectural government will call on the METI's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on June 9, and receive the explanation on earthquake countermeasures. The prefectural government is still in talks with Kyushu Electric over the re-start of the reactors.

The governor of Saga is another elite Tokyo University graduate (law school), and a career government bureaucrat.

Gifu Prefecture, which sits right about the middle of Japan and downwind from the "Genpatsu Ginza" (Nuke Plant Thoroughfare) in Fukui Prefecture where 14 nuclear reactors including the fast breeder Monju are located right on the pristine Wakasa Bay, admits that it didn't have potassium iodide pills for the residents ready for a nuclear accident. Gifu Shinbun reported on June 7 (in Japanese).

According to Gifu Shinbun, the Gifu prefectural government used to store about 2,500 doses, but that was ditched in 2006, partly because there was a company that manufactured potassium iodide pills in the prefecture. The government decided to rely on the company and the pharmaceutical industry associations in the prefecture to supply the pills to the government as necessary in a nuclear accident.

Gifu Prefecture has a population of over 2 million as of August 2010.

The newspaper reports that in late March this year after the Fukushima accident, the pharmaceutical company donated 35,000 doses of potassium iodide, which then were distributed to seven hospitals in 5 areas.

Well, Gifu Prefecture is not alone. Back on March 16, CBS News in the US reported that the Japanese national government only had 230,000 doses of potassium iodide.

(Is it any wonder that 2 TEPCO employees who exceeded 250 millisievert/yr limit by wide margin didn't take potassium iodide after one day? Maybe there were no more doses...)

Nuclear power plants have been sold to the populace as "safe" for almost a half century in Japan. Stocking up on potassium iodide has been considered an awkward admission that the nuke plants may not be so safe, and therefore hasn't been done at least publicly. It turns out it hasn't been done privately either.

I'm reading it now. It looks like the IAEA report to the Japanese government, and it also looks like the presentation that one of the government's favorite nuclear scholars at Tokyo University made in late May (h/t helios).

Why do I get this suspicion that all three were written by the same set of people?

The most hilarious part of the report to me is the "lessons learned" section. Before they "learn the lessons", they'd better stop these reactors from spreading further radiation, FIRST.

Did you even know that there was water in the basement of Fukushima II ("Daini")? And that water needs to be treated to remove the radioactive materials?

TEPCO fears that the power supply equipments in the basements may degrade from the salt water from tsunami, but if they have been sitting in the salt water for nearly 3 months, they are practically worthless, I would assume.

Again, a brilliant design by GE, having the power supply in the basement in a nuclear power plant right by the ocean in an earthquake/tsunami-prone country.

From Japan's TBS News (10:58PM JST 6/7/2011; the link will probably be changed or disappear soon, as is often the case with the TV broadcasters):

It has been revealed that TEPCO wants to release about 3,000 tons of water in the reactor buildings [and turbine buildings, according to the news clip at the site] of Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant. However, fearing the negative effect on marine products, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is strongly against the plan, making the negotiations between TEPCO and the Ministry difficult.

The reactors at Fukushima II Nuke Plant are in "cold shutdown". But the tsunami after the March 11 earthquake inundated the reactor buildings and the turbine buildings. TEPCO planned the release of this large amount of water into the ocean, and has been negotiating with the government officials.

TEPCO says it will remove the radioactive materials in the water to the level lower than allowed by law before releasing it into the ocean. But the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is strongly against the plan, fearing the effect on the marine products.

Monday, June 6, 2011

It's so predictable how these politicians and bureaucrats behave: like they have behaved ever since the start of the accident.

Yomiuri Shinbun (original in Japanese; 6/7/2011) reports that the Japanese government will now admit in the report to IAEA that the "melt-through" may have taken place in the Reactors 1, 2 and 3 at Fukushima I Nuke Plant.

According to Yomiuri, "melt-through" happens when the melted fuel leaked from the Reactor Pressure Vessel and deposits at the bottom of the Containment Vessel, and is considered worse than "melt down".

Well, "fear-mongering" and "sensational" US Representative Ed Markey, D-Mass. was right then. He said back on April 6 that he'd received information that part of the reactor core had probably melted through the Reactor Pressure Vessel at the Reactor 2 at Fukushima. And the NRC said they didn't know for sure. Uh huh.

By the time the report is submitted and discussed at the IAEA, they will be talking about the corium out of the Containment Vessel, eating away the foundation.

This blog posted on June 3 that the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency revealed tellurium-132 had been detected 6 kilometers from the plant on the morning of March 12, before the venting of the Reactor 1.

Well, that Yomiuri Shinbun article in that post was incomplete, to say the least. It turns out that it was not only one location in Namie-machi where radioactive tellurium was detected but also at 3 other locations: one more location in Namie-machi, one location in Okuma-machi, and one location in Minami-Soma City.

Moreover, the same air radiation survey done by Fukushima Prefecture detected more volatile iodine-131 at half as much as tellurium, but it hardly detected any cesium-137 except at one location.

It's not supposed to happen that way, if what we've been told about the circumstance is correct, as a Kyoto University professor says in the article in Tokyo Shinbun, below.

(I'll go look for the information at NISA, and update if I find more data.)

It has been revealed that radioactive tellurium, a metal that is hard to disperse in the atmosphere, was detected on the next day [March 12] of the earthquake in Namie-machi, 7 kilometers from the plant, and other locations according to the result of the monitoring survey done by Fukushima Prefecture before the explosion at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant that day. More tellurium was detected than more volatile radioactive iodine. It shows that metallic radioactive materials [like tellurium] dispersed wide from an early stage [of the accident]. Tellurium is a rare metal, and tellurium-132 has a half-life of about 3 days, emitting beta rays.

The data was revealed on June 3 evening by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The monitoring survey of the air was done from March 12 morning till March 13 night, and the most of the data had been withheld until June 3. Tellurium-132 was detected from the morning till the early afternoon on March 12 at 2 locations in Namie-machi, and Okuma-machi and Minami-Soma City. The concentration was between 23 to 119 becquerels per cubic meter, exceeding the safety limit of 20 becquerels per cubic meter.

当時の原子炉建屋は換気装置が止まり外に空気が出ない状態。蒸気を放出するベント作業は十二日午後に行われ、その直後に水素爆発が起きた。

At that time, there was no air escaping the reactor building as the air exchange system had stopped. The venting to release the steam was done in the afternoon of March 12, and a hydrogen explosion [in the Reactor 1] happened after the venting.

TEPCO thinks that tellurium came from the Reactor 1 whose fuel core was most damaged, and explains, "As the pressure inside the Containment Vessel rose, tellurium, along with hydrogen, may have escaped from the joints [on the Containment Vessel]. The pressure inside the reactor building also rose, and then tellurium leaked outside the building and was carried by the wind and spread wide."

However, volatile and therefore more easily dispersed iodine-131 was detected at half the amount of tellurium. Cesium-137 was detected in one location in Namie-machi in the amount exceeding that of tellurium; however, at other locations, it was detected in only minute amount.

京都大原子炉実験所の山本俊弘准教授（原子炉物理）は「現在分かっている状況では、テルルが遠方に飛散することは考えにくい」と述べた。

Associate Professor Toshihiro Yamamoto of Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (reactor physics) says "Under the circumstance that we have understood so far, it is hard to believe that tellurium would spread far."

In April when it nonchalantly raised the INES level of Fukushima I Nuclear Plant accident to "Level 7", the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said the total amount of radioactive materials (iodine and cesium) released into the atmosphere from the plant was 370,000 terabequerels.

Now it's been revised to 850,000 terabecquerels, 130% jump from 370,000.

Why the revision? NISA says it underestimated the release from the Reactors 2 and 3.

And remember, the contaminated water at Fukushima I Nuke Plant contains 720,000 terabecquerels of radioactive iodine and cesium.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) on June 6 revised the level of radioactivity of materials emitted from the crisis hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant from 370,000 terabecquerels to 850,000 terabecquerels.

The Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan (NSC) had estimated that the total level of radioactivity stood at around 630,000 terabecquerels, but this figure was criticized as an underestimation. NISA officials plan to present the new figure at a ministerial meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after reporting it to the NSC.

The NSC and NISA, which operates under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, announced a figure for the total amount of radioactivity on April 12, when the severity of the Fukushima nuclear crisis on the International Nuclear Events Scale was raised to level 7, matching that of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. In the Chernobyl accident, the total amount of radioactivity reached 5.2 million terabecquerels.

The NSC calculated the amount of radioactive materials released into the air between the outset of the crisis and April 5, based on the amount of radiation from measurements taken near the plant. NISA based its calculations on the state of the plant's reactors.

The latest figure takes into consideration the release of radioactive materials during explosions at the plant's No. 2 and 3 reactors. The INES scale designates leaks of tens of thousands of terabecquerels as level 7 events, and the seriousness of the disaster on the scale will not change as a result of NISA's revision of the amount.

I was listening the podcast of the interview Arnie Gundersen gave to Chris Martenson the other day (in order to translate into Japanese) and noticed something I had missed when I skimmed through the transcript for my post.

Gundersen is saying that 10% of the fuel core of the Reactor 3 may be repeating a re-criticality, on and off:

"Unit 3 may not have melted through and that means that some of the fuel certainly is lying on the bottom, but it may not have melted through and some of the fuel may still look like fuel, although it is certainly brittle. And it's possible that when the fuel is in that configuration that you can get a re-criticality. It's also possible in any of the fuel pools, one, two, three, and four pools, that you could get a criticality, as well. So there’s been frequent enough high iodine indications to lead me to believe that either one of the four fuel pools or the Unit 3 reactor is in fact, every once in a while starting itself up and then it gets to a point where it gets so hot that it shuts itself down and it kind of cycles. It kind of breathes, if you will.

"I think it's a relatively significant amount – maybe a tenth of the nuclear reactor core starts back up and shuts back down and starts back up and shuts back down. And that’s an extra heat load; you are not prepared to get rid of one tenth of a nuclear reactor’s heat by pumping water in the top."

Below is the chart of iodine-131 detection at the Federal Office of Radiation Protection in Germany, plotting the CTBTO station data from around the world. Station 38 is Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture in Japan, 218 kilometers (135 miles) from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. I always thought it was rather peculiar that there seemed to be periodic spikes in the amount of iodine-131 (also of cesium-137 but to a lesser degree) followed by a relatively calm, steady decline.

Could these spikes indicate what Gundersen is talking about? On-and-off recriticality?

TEPCO installed the pressure gauge in the Reactor 1 on June 4, and surprise surprise! The pressure measurement of the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) had been all wrong.

The pressure readings of the Reactor 1 RPV had been used by TEPCO to defend their position that the RPV was not damaged, or was damaged but not by much. It had been also used by TEPCO to claim that there was water inside the RPV. Say goodbye to both fantasies for good.

From METI's press releases on the Fukushima Plant Parameters on June 3 and June 5:

So, if you see the RPV number in MPa g equal to zero, it means the RPV pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure. If the number is negative, like the Reactors 2 and 3 RPVs, the RPV pressure is lower than the atmospheric pressure.

The next fantasy to go will be the pressure of the Reactor 1 Containment Vessel. It is again being used as the reason to believe the melted core is still within the Containment Vessel. (Never mind that the contaminated water is leaking inside the reactor building...) TEPCO says they will install the pressure gauge for the Containment Vessel soon.

For now, the pressure numbers for Containment Vessel show that it is above the atmospheric pressure in the Drywell, and almost at the atmospheric pressure in the Suppression Chamber. That's not surprising about the SC, as we've seen the gushing of "hot" steam (4 sieverts/hour) from the compartment that houses the SC.

Minute amounts of plutonium have been detected for the first time in soil outside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Shinzo Kimura of Hokkaido University collected the roadside samples in Okumamachi, some 1.7 kilometers west of the front gate of the power station. They were taken during filming by NHK on April 21st, one day before the area was designated as an exclusion zone.

Professor Masayoshi Yamamoto and researchers at a Kanazawa University laboratory analyzed the samples and found minute amounts of 3 kinds of plutonium.

The samples of plutonium-239 and 240 make up a total of 0.078 becquerels per kilogram.

This is close to the amount produced by past atomic bomb tests.

But the 3 substances are most likely to have come from the plant blasts, as their density ratio is different from those detected in the past.

Professor Yamamoto said the quantities are so minute that people's health will not be harmed.

But he recommended that the contamination near the plant should be fully investigated, saying that a study may shed light on how radioactive materials spread in the air.

In this day and age of measuring radiation in "sieverts" at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, anything that measures in "millisieverts" seems like a low radiation and doesn't even make the news.

Still, TEPCO's latest "survey map" (contamination map) of the plant shows a radiation from bits of concrete at 950 millisievert/hour on the west side of Reactor 3 (in the map, right below the Reactor 3 building). There's also a 550 millisievert/hour concrete block on the west side of Reactor 2, which may have flown from Reactor 3.

Spend 15 to 30 minutes handling these concrete bits, and your maximum radiation dose of 250 millisieverts as a radiation worker at Fukushima I Nuke Plant will be reached. For handling the 950 millisieverts/hr concrete bits, radiation workers in France would exceed their level of 20 millisieverts per year in slightly over a minute. For the US radiation workers, their 50 millisieverts per year would be reached in less than 4 minutes.

(The link to TEPCO's survey maps is posted on the right-hand column of this blog.)

And here's the picture of the 950 millisieverts/hr concrete bits, from TEPCO. "12 mSv/hr" dose shown on the card attached to an orange cone is clearly the air radiation:

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

About This Site

Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word.------------------This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.

Along with commentary on day's financial news, it also provides links to the sites with financial and economic news, market data, stock technical analysis, and other relevant information that could potentially affect the financial markets and beyond.

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